____  _____  ___  ___  ____  ____   ____   ____ ___  ____
          |    \(____ |/___)/ _ \|  _ \|    \ / ___) / ___) _ \|    \
          | | | / ___ |___ | |_| | | | | | | ( (___ ( (__| |_| | | | |
          |_|_|_\_____(___/ \___/|_| |_|_|_|_|\____|_)____)___/|_|_|_|

I've posted an update with a litany (<< awesome word) of bugfixes, plus a new crash reporter tool. If you've already downloaded the designer, just run it and it'll prompt you to install the update. Let it download, and the designer will exit... then wait for the installer to come up, hit next twice, then relaunch the Designer and you'll be on the latest and greatest.

Going forward I want to make a site specific news roll, but for now these will be here...

We're launched! Some of you hit an early bump when going through the tutorial, where it'd crash inside the new project dialog if you chose certain devices. That's been fixed, and if you run the designer again it will auto-update (a good test!). There's also what may be an odd issue where the auto-generated code doesn't compile because it's formatting the physics screen diagonal number using a comma, which in code looks like a call with two arguments to a function that only expects one. Tracking that one. Also added some clearer instructions about what dependencies you need to install - essentially, you need either Visual Studio C# Express or full VS2010, plus the XNA framework, and the Windows Phone Tools. You also need the .NET 4 framework, but I think most systems have that installed already, and that the installer will catch if you don't have it and grab it for you.

In general though - it's on track! Many thanks to all of you that plunged headfirst into the unknown and were kind enough to report back on problems instead of just giving up. They're really valuable and it's really great to see people starting to explore! Please do though use the support center, on the site - I want to keep the issues open and public so that nobody wastes their time reporting a dupe. Also if you've hit something that technically works but was counter-intuitive... I want to hear about those as well. Not just bugs... anything!

Finally - I realized I forgot to hook up any sort of "catch crash, prompt for what happened, send to server" code. I'll definitely be adding that soon.

Big news today!

I'm excited to announce the first public beta of the Cuttlefish Engine, a completely new approach to cross-platform mobile game development. Cuttlefish writes the code for you, and it can write in several different languages - Objective C for iOS devices (iPhone, iPad, etc), C# for Windows Phone, Java for Android, and more. Cuttlefish takes all these different platforms and languages, and unites them under a single tool: The Cuttlefish Designer. It's your secret weapon for creating games on any platform: mobile, web, and beyond*.

To download, point your browser at http://www.cuttlefishengine.com/content/download.

Today's beta release includes complete support for Windows Phone. You can build a game completely within the Cuttlefish Designer, and release it to the Zune Marketplace. And it's good timing - there's a real lack of games out there for Windows Phone, and that spells opportunity for independent developers. So, even though this is still beta software, there's no better way to test it than to build and sell a game!

The "builders" that output iOS (iPhone and iPad), as well as Android, are forthcoming, but you can start using Cuttlefish now to develop for these platforms - we've included simulators for both. You can work with their native resolutions, and see your game running - just not on the actual devices yet. When the update arrives, you'll be good to go - everything you've done will transfer over. A simple build, and your game's on device.

Also, we're excited to announce that the engine itself is completely open source. This means that, not only will you be able to extend the engine easily to fit your needs, but also, you'll be able to step all the way into engine code in the debugger, and when you build, you get 100% of your game code. You will need a designer subscription to build for devices, but everything else is free.

So give it a shot! This is the fruit of two and half years of active (if quiet!) development, and the passion I have for it is only getting strong. I'm really excited to share it, and I encourage you all to check out the brand new site, give it a download, and fill up the forums with what you think!